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Developing and applying statistical methods: Appointment of Christian Aßmann as Professor for Survey Statistics and Data Analysis

3/31/2020

He has been affiliated with the National Education Panel Study (NEPS) for over ten years and has been acting Head of the Department “Research Data Center, Method Development” at the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi) since 2016. Now, Prof. Dr. Christian Aßmann has been appointed to the department of Survey Statistics and Data Analysis at the University of Bamberg.

© LIfBi / Thomas Riese 

On April 1, 2020, Christian Aßmann was appointed to the academic department of Survey Statistics and Data Analysis at the University of Bamberg in addition with the position of Head of the Department “Research Data Center, Method Development” at the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories. The scientist says he is looking forward to the tasks and challenges associated with the role: “Through its range of tasks and its collegial environment, the LIfBi provides ideal conditions for linking my research interests with scientific practice.” This is particularly evident in the National Education Panel Study (NEPS), the largest educational study in Germany, which has its base here at LIfBi in Bamberg. “Without the methodological fundamentals that we are developing at LIfBi and in the NEPS Network, we would not be able to collect any NEPS data and would thus be unable to make them available to the entire scientific community,” explains Aßmann.

Providing research data infrastructure, as required by the large-scale project of the National Education Panel Study, is a particularly exciting challenge for him. As Head of Department at LIfBi, he is responsible for a wide range of tasks—from questions regarding sample design and data provision to data analysis. The latter also repeatedly requires the development or refinement of statistical methods. “I would like to advance these developments together with the Institute and the NEPS Network—while also keeping an eye on possible limitations. I am particularly pleased that I can teach this also to the students in my university courses”, says Christian Aßmann.

LIfBi Director Prof. Dr. Cordula Artelt welcomes the news: “The appointment of Professor Aßmann brings double joy to LIfBi: Continuous management of LIfBi's Department 3 is thus ensured and we will keep a valued colleague.”

After receiving his diploma in economics in 2004 from the University of Kiel, Christian Aßmann worked as a Research Assistant at the Institute for Statistics and Econometrics there. In 2009 he completed his dissertation and moved to Bamberg.

He was a Research Assistant at the National Education Panel Study (NEPS) until March 2011. After that, he took over as interim Professor for Economics, in particular Industrial Economics, at the University of Bamberg for one year. At the same time, from October 2011 to March 2012, he also held the Junior Professorship for Applied Econometrics at the University of Kiel. As of April 2012, he was working as a Research and Teaching Assistant at the Chair of Statistics and Econometrics at the University of Bamberg. From 2018 to 2019 he first became interim Professor of Mathematics in Economics; then afterward, from April 2019, he held the Chair of Statistics and Econometrics on an interim basis. Since July 2016, he was acting Head of the Department “Research Data Center, Method Development” at LIfBi.

His research interest focuses on the development and application of statistical methods—in particular, Bayesian estimation procedures for handling missing values in statistical analysis.

Christian Aßmann is a member of the expert committee monitoring the “Gute-KiTa” Act of the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ) [legislation on good quality of child-care facilities]. He has been a member of the preparatory commission of the German Data Forum (RatSWD) for the Consortium of Social, Behavioral, Educational, and Economic Sciences within the National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) since 2018.